A foreign matter removal device that removes foreign matters on the work by immersing the work of a foodstuff such as primal/sub-primal cuts of meat is known. The foreign matters are such as hair, loose bones, insects, paper and straw. In this type of removal device, the works are put in a bucket and transferred and the cleaning liquid is fluidized in a cleaning tank by agitating the cleaning liquid so as to collide the works against the inner wall of the bucket or with each other. In this manner, the foreign matters on the work can be scraped off by friction force.
Patent Document 1, JP2872102B proposes a foreign matter removal device with a plurality of buckets arranged from an input end to a discharge end. The cleaning liquid for cleaning the work is stored in a bucket of each cleaning tank and the foreign matters on the work stored in the bucket are removed by agitating the cleaning liquid and transferred to the next bucket arranged on the downstream side thereof toward the discharge end by inverting the bucket. In the removal device, the cleaning liquid overflowing from the cleaning tank when a pumping unit supplies more cleaning liquid, is stored in a storage tank, and the cleaning liquid stored in the storage tank is injected from injection nozzles so as to fluidize the liquid in the cleaning tank and remove foreign matters on the works in the bucket.
With the removal device of JP2872102B, the removed foreign matters are led to the storage tank with the cleaning liquid overflowing from the cleaning tank and captured by a strainer provided in the storage tank. Meanwhile, the foreign matters sinking to the bottom of the cleaning tank are led upward by upstream flow of the cleaning liquid ejected from an ejection pipe provided at the bottom of the cleaning tank. The foreign matters lifted by the upstream flow of the cleaning liquid are captured by the strainer in the storage tank.